Touch, Cuddle, Wraps and Talking to Your Baby

Jan 18, 2017 3:03:19 PM

Cuddling and holding is a way for parents to feel that they are interacting with their child in a loving and meaningful way. Human Touch has very high healing properties. Even though a baby is unable to speak or express through verbal emotion, he or she can sense the warmth of the touch and the feeling of security the parent emotes when they cuddle or hold their child close to the body.

This is why pediatricians always encourage women to breastfeed. Breastfeeding leads the baby to be in close touch with the mother’s body. The warmth and the smell of the mothers’ body is soothing for the baby. Babies who are held often and have their needs met are more likely to have higher self-esteem, self-confidence and a sense of security and worthiness.

Hugs, cuddles and kisses create a strong bond between parents and their children. It helps the child to in future have better friendships and social relationships. A child correlates a touch emotion of a hug or a kiss or a cuddle to being loved and cared for.

Cuddling makes babies calm and relaxed. It enables them to sleep quickly and have deep sleep. It lowers colic disorders and anxiety and stress in the baby. It also reduces the discomfort caused during teething, congestion, vaccinations and colic times.

Babies who don’t experience cuddling or are kept away in an isolated bedroom are found to have markedly lower levels of oxytocin and vasopressin - hormones that are thought to play key roles in creating anxiety and social behaviors. Lower levels of these hormones may lead to children having difficulties forming attachments and social relationships in adulthood.

Hugs are a form of eternal happiness. The more we hug the happier we feel. Human touch can help to alleviate so many issues, stresses and unhappiness. Hug is the most powerful human touch of all! Positive Physical touch is one of the most important stimulation that can facilitate healthy child development. Children who are subjected to limited human contact usually suffer from impaired growth, withdrawn social behavior and lower cognitive development.

Hugging is so important that the Touch Research Institute, at the University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine, was started in 1992. In a recent study on aggression, seventeen adolescents were studied, and it was noted that the massaged teens had lower anxiety and reported feeling less hostile. Their parents perceived them as being less aggressive too. While this is a small study, it makes the point again about touch, in this case therapeutic touch, and its impact on behavior.

Our lives are fast paced today. Our clocks tick much faster. We are having babies much later than our mothers and grandmothers did. More babies today are in day care and outside care than cared for by the parent. All of this leads to a general issue of a child feeling deprived of love and attention, fear of being alone and other emotions.

As parents let’s take the time out for what is really important in our life. We give birth to our kids and it’s our responsibility to love and care for them. Parenting is not easy. It requires lots of patience, time and effort. Make your world full of hugs and giggles and cuddles - for this time will never ever come back!

This article is authored by Nidhi B Mehta - The founder of e-commerce kids site NeedyBee.com and the founder of the Dance Fitness revolution www.BollyBeatz.com and a blog writer on www.supermompreneurs.com . Nidhi is a motivational speaker, published author and a mother of two children.